NEW PLANE

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Bit late coming in here but on Robbies advice, I bought a Radian. First thing to remember is DO NOT leave the battery in the plane when not in use as it will drain the power right out of it and once it drops below 9v, it will be unusable again.

I've been flying my Radian for a couple of months now and I'm glad I didn't go for something faster as rc flying is not as easy as it looks and one small mistake with a fast plane will have it nosing into the ground and bye bye plane!

The Radian on the otherhand is a very forgiving plane to fly. It's 2 metre wingspan hugs the air and it can stay aloft 3,4 or even 5 times as long as say a Piper Cub. Even when it stalls in mid air, it can recover itself and doesn't go into a dive for the ground. It has a slow landing speed and is easy to touch down on it's belly (no wheels to get caught in grass!) so long as you keep the wings level. It also has a fold back propellor that won't get dated on landing unlike fixed propellors.

All in, I've learned pretty quickly on my Radian after an inital lesson from Robbie (thanks again) and this planes natural agility in the air flatters my newbie flying skills.

Here is a video we did in galway last weekend, we used a go pro camera, looks like a great camera for video from the radian. We also used it from the trex 600 using a DIY mount which is shown during the video also.
Youtube makes the video a little flickery, but the raw video from the go pro camera is amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKKG4_wG0BE

Randyleprechaun

Are you based in the West Robbie

Bruthal

Randyleprechaun wrote: »

Are you based in the West Robbie

No im in navan, although i do go to mayo now and again, where are you?

Randyleprechaun

I sent you a PM there Robbie. Thanks

Bruthal

Poly wrote: »

I got the cularis from island models in Gorey, not sure if he still sell's them. It's the auld story,from the UK the shipping is a killer. Don't know anywhere in Dublin that stocks them, Greene Marine?

Do you use seperate receiver battery in the cularis or did you go with the ESC BEC?

Poly

robbie7730 wrote: »

Do you use seperate receiver battery in the cularis or did you go with the ESC BEC?

I always use a seperate Rx battery now. I lost my easy glider when the ESC went on fire just as I was pulling out of an inverted loop.

Kashkai

Speaking of loops, I was having one of my best sessions today when I pulled back on the stick to put my radian in a loop but as it reached the top of it's arc, I lost control for some reason - some kind if interuption to the transmitter or low battery voltage in the plane perhaps. Anyways I could do nothing but watch in horror as the radian went into a steep dive and ploughed nose first into the ground at great speed. The whole front section broke off. To say I was sickened was an understatement.

When I brought the plane home, I checked to see if it was repairable but it's not only broken off front the fuselage bur the cockpit area is twisted and smashed beyond repair. The good news is that the receiver appears to be working as the rudder and elevators still work and the propellor spun on low revs.

Wonder what happened to it to make me lose control. It was about 150 feet up and 20 feet in front of me when I lost control.

Poly

Sorry for your loss,
No matter how many planes I plant, none of them grow!

Were you running the rx off the ESC?

Right now, I'm busy putting the finishing touches to my Ultra Spad stick,

I built it from plans found here:

http://www.spadtothebone.com/freeplans.htm


I have a converted 28cc strimmer engine in her, she's a monster.
I'll do some engine runs tomorrow weather permitting, might even chance a flight if all goes well, I've a feeling she might be underpowered though.

I take some pics tomorrow

Bruthal

Poly wrote: »

Sorry for your loss,
No matter how many planes I plant, none of them grow!

Were you running the rx off the ESC?

The rx is fed from the esc on the radian. But i doubt thats the problem. If the receiver loses power or signal the motor will stop. It will restart on receiver re-connection but there will be a stop of motor for a few seconds, its more likely what happened was trying a loop too low and trying to get out of it without completing it. As the radian has no ailerons the loop is easiest to get out of by completing it rather than steer out of it at the top of the loop while inverted. If the motor kept running until impact it is likely the receiver had full connection the entire time and an error by the pilot is likely. I think he said it did a bigger loop than when he had tried them before despite giving full elevator during the loop, and so gave it full throttle, but the motor will stop if there is receiver loss, pilot error likely, dont we all have pilot error now and again and then cant remember exactly what happened? The radian is easy to fly but it can catch you out doing low level loops, nearly got caught out myself once or twice.

Kashkai

Looking back, too little altitude was a major contributing factor, the other being my newbie low level of flying skills, with some panic thrown in for good measure.

I'm having great difficulty sourcing a new fuselage. The two sources that I'm aware of in the UK, i.e. Squadron Leader and Modelmaniacs are out of stock. I'm getting withdrawal sympthoms from not flying the past week.

If anyone knows of another source of Radian parts in the UK, I'd appreciate it.

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Looking back, too little altitude was a major contributing factor, the other being my newbie low level of flying skills, with some panic thrown in for good measure.

I'm having great difficulty sourcing a new fuselage. The two sources that I'm aware of in the UK, i.e. Squadron Leader and Modelmaniacs are out of stock. I'm getting withdrawal sympthoms from not flying the past week.

If anyone knows of another source of Radian parts in the UK, I'd appreciate it.

http://www.f1hobbies.com/shop.php?id=2262&level=

Modelmaniacs looks like its in stock, did you try buying it, no pic in the list but it lets ye add to cart

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Looking back, too little altitude was a major contributing factor, the other being my newbie low level of flying skills, with some panic thrown in for good measure.

I'm having great difficulty sourcing a new fuselage. The two sources that I'm aware of in the UK, i.e. Squadron Leader and Modelmaniacs are out of stock. I'm getting withdrawal sympthoms from not flying the past week.

If anyone knows of another source of Radian parts in the UK, I'd appreciate it.

You will surely need a new prop as well i`d say, it must of been broken in the impact? Even if it was`t i would replace it.

syl77

Hi Robbie, did you have any issues with vibrations while taking video footage with you 600E and diy mount?

Bruthal

syl77 wrote: »

Hi Robbie, did you have any issues with vibrations while taking video footage with you 600E and diy mount?

I did have bad vibration the very first test flight before the mount was fitted with radio receiver etc, but the blades on the 600 were out of track and were an old set that are a bit the worst for wear. So i got new main and tail blades and tracked main ones, and used rubber straps from a garden centre normally used for tying plants to trellis`s etc to tie the mount onto heli skids, and its very smooth now, the video after the mount is shown in youtube clip is raw video from it, no processing. I was surprised how well it worked. The motor on the 600 is new also, its the new 600m one, it is lower rev`s than the original but i would`t say that would of made much difference.

The mount is made from a sheet of ply from woodies, the tilt has a gyro on it, another 2 gyros are going on the roll and pan axis`s this week. There`s a video tx on it so another fella operates the camera using a seperate radio controller and video display while i just hover around.

Kashkai

robbie7730 wrote: »

http://www.f1hobbies.com/shop.php?id=2262&level=

Modelmaniacs looks like its in stock, did you try buying it, no pic in the list but it lets ye add to cart

I placed an order last Tuesday with Modelmaniacs even though their website states that the fuselage is "Awaiting Delivery", presumably from their suppliers. I've heard nothing since despite the money being taken out of my credit card and 2 emails to them enquiring when the fuselage will be shipped.

As for the prop, funnily enough it didn't break even though it was running at full throttle on impact. I've tested the motor since the crash and it funs up to full revs with no apparent vibration. There's no visible damage that I can see either. I do have a spare prop which I bought when I first ordered the Radian in case it does need to be repaired.

Thanks for finding that other site. When I googled Radian Parts a few minutes ago, that site you found came up on page 5 of my search results! I usually don't look that far down. Most of the other sites I found on the first few pages were US based and the cost of shipping parts over here was more than the price of the part itself.

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

I placed an order last Tuesday with Modelmaniacs even though their website states that the fuselage is "Awaiting Delivery", presumably from their suppliers. I've heard nothing since despite the money being taken out of my credit card and 2 emails to them enquiring when the fuselage will be shipped.

As for the prop, funnily enough it didn't break even though it was running at full throttle on impact. I've tested the motor since the crash and it funs up to full revs with no apparent vibration. There's no visible damage that I can see either. I do have a spare prop which I bought when I first ordered the Radian in case it does need to be repaired.

Thanks for finding that other site. When I googled Radian Parts a few minutes ago, that site you found came up on page 5 of my search results! I usually don't look that far down. Most of the other sites I found on the first few pages were US based and the cost of shipping parts over here was more than the price of the part itself.

I never look that far down either, it just depends on the exact wording in the search as to how far down the results are in the list.

I would inspect that crash prop very carefully, we had 2 break in mid air before for no reason, they have since been updated by parkzone, and one half of prop missing can damage the motor mount. Might be as well just putting new one on it and throw out the one that was in the crash.

The older props have 9.75 x 7.5 on them, new more durable ones have
9.75 x 7.5_1 on them. You can actually send your set in for free replacement if they were the older type.

r011ingthunder

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

I placed an order last Tuesday with Modelmaniacs even though their website states that the fuselage is "Awaiting Delivery", presumably from their suppliers. I've heard nothing since despite the money being taken out of my credit card and 2 emails to them enquiring when the fuselage will be shipped.

I've bought from these guys before, they don't communicate by email AT ALL, but they do provide the goods. I'd try calling them if possible.

Kashkai

Where did you buy the new uprated prop for your Radian Robbie?

Bruthal

Prosperous Dave wrote: »

Where did you buy the new uprated prop for your Radian Robbie?

I did`t get updated radian one as they were not available when we broke them, so i got whole new aeronaut prop setup from
http://www.gliders.uk.com/departments.asp?dept=123
I have the parts codes i you wanted to go that route, but the parzone
prop update should be fine. The new updated prop has _1 after the prop
size description so if yours does not have that then its the older one.


Email these and ask about the free updated one if yours is older type.
http://www.horizonhobby.co.uk/

But if your one is intact you can still fly with it but if getting a new fuselage anyway you may as well get spare prop too. The main thing to check for on motor after impact is bent shaft also.